GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — A man from Mexico and a woman from Morristown will spend time in federal prison after a methamphetamine investigation.
According to U.S. attorney J. Douglas Overbey's office, Ildefonso Bautista Nogales, 30, of Mexico, was sentenced Monday after pleading guilty in April 2019 to conspiring with Erika Lawson, 33, of Morristown, to distributing methamphetamine in Upper East Tennessee.
Overbey said Nogales was distributing meth while illegally in the U.S.
A judge sentenced Nogales to 10 years in federal prison. Lawson was sentenced to serve 8 years and 4 months in federal prison back in June.
Overbey said the investigation was conducted by the Hamblen County Sheriff's Department and the FBI.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said meth crimes have been rapidly rising in Tennessee in the past three years. Its crime lab said much of that meth is coming from across the Mexico border, saying meth lab seizures across the state continue to drop.